While his high school classmates were prepping to start their college careers at places like the University of North Carolina, Harvard and M.I.T., Andrew Hicks was busy clowning around.

Hicks, a Goldsboro, native, dreamed of becoming a Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey clown. It’s a goal he achieved after graduating in 2010 from the prestigious North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham and one he’ll continue to realize when the Big Top comes to Charlotte next week.

“It’s like going to work and playing for three-and-a-half hours,” Hicks, 21, said in a phone interview last week from Miami, Fla.

Although he’s a first-generation performer, Hicks grew up a clown. As a toddler, he loved watching the 1987 documentary about the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.

After teaching himself some small gags and how to juggle, he convinced his dad, who owned a Chick- fil -A, to let him perform at the restaurant at the age of nine. From there, he started landing gigs at churches, libraries, fairs and other events.

“I made a pretty good chunk of change as an elementary student,” said Hicks, who, appropriately enough, was nominated as “Class Clown” in the eighth grade and taught his entire hall how to juggle while at his residential high school.

After his initial tryout for Ringling Bros. in February 2010 – during his senior year – went well, he decided to put his plans to go to college and become a veterinarian on hold. Nine months later, after a second audition in Coney Island, N.Y., he joined the circus on tour. Other than a month-long layoff in December, he’s been on the road ever since.

“I love the travel,” he said. “We travel by train – there are 300-plus people that travel in our unit plus elephants and tigers. It’s just great the stuff that you get to see outside your window.”

What locals will get to see when the train pulls into Charlotte is what Hicks said really is “the Greatest Show on Earth.” Named “Dragons,” the storyline of this Ringling Bros. spectacle is that the ring master’s assistant keeps seeing glimpses of a dragon throughout the first half of the arena show. Eventually, an enormous, golden dragon flies out.

The show includes high-wire acts, equine drill and trick riders, motorcyclists riding in a 16-foot steel sphere, acrobats, martial artists and the clowns of Clown Alley, where Hicks resides.

The character he’s created for this show is an extreme exaggeration of what he said is his inability to be cool. In addition to custom clown shoes and the standard red nose, he wears a leather jacket and skinny jeans.

“Growing up, I did all the things kids do. I tried to have a cool haircut and wear cool clothes,” he said. “As much as I tried, I was not cool. As a clown, I exaggerate that. We find the small little flaws in ourselves and exaggerate that. It’s something people can relate to.”

WANT TO GO?

What: “Dragons,” the 142nd production of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus.